Social media has emerged as the trendy marketing tool of the last few years. More and more, businesses are using it to promote their products in ways that combine the broadcasting potential of television and radio and combine it with the conversational messaging of word-of-mouth marketing. And yet…

…many still have trouble integrating the day-to-day affairs of running a business with the networking in social media.

It sounds odd, but social media is the enigma that works much better in reverse. Unlike other forms of promotions, it’s something that requires constant interaction to be effective. You can shoot a television ad and have it run for months. You can have your site optimized for search and let an SEO firm continue to build links without your own attention paid to it. You can build banner ads, record radio spots, and have print ads built, all of which do not require daily activity.

Social media is the rebel. It must be nurtured. The best way to do so is to combine activities and make it an essential activity on a daily basis. To do so, you must have some structure about what you’re wanting to do and how you want to do it. Checking your Facebook page daily is not enough.

Every day for the next 10, we will be expanding on individual items in the list. First, the overview:

Search for Opportunities – People display their needs and desires publicly on Twitter and Facebook every day. If they’re going to post on their Twitter feed that they “need a new car” and you’re a car dealer, shouldn’t you be paying attention to your local area?

Thank Your Customers By Name – Businesses that cater to a handful of customers a day can thank just about everyone. Those who deal with masses of customers such as restaurants will need to get a little more creative. Either way, you should be doing it and it takes no time at all to do so.

Daily/Weekly/Monthly Videos – While many businesses are posting on their own YouTube channels, few are truly taking advantage of the medium. Even if it’s a quick 30-second video, you should be posting regularly. For some, regularly is daily. For others, it could be monthly. Based upon your business style, you’ll be able to determine the interval. The important thing is to stick to it.

Infographics – It’s cheating. It’s taking content that others create (or that you have created if you so choose) and presenting it to your audience. Done properly and ethically, it’s the fastest way to get content that your customers will appreciate without having to be a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

Cultivate Your Fans, Friends, and Followers – This is not a “once in a while” activity for any business that really wants to succeed at social media. It’s something that should be done daily. The good thing is that it can be done in just a couple of minutes a day.

Monitor, Respond To, and Drive People to Review Pages – Reviews are getting more and more attention of late, particularly with the way Google has been using them in their search results. You can use social media to help take control of your reputation.

Play Empire Avenue – This is another cheat, but only for the blog itself. Why would there be a game in an article about day-to-day business. You’ll see… (thus, the cheating – who can resist a hook like that?)

Interact on Niche Social Networks – For just about every profession or business type out there, there are social networking sites specific to that niche. Find them. Read them. Decide whether to engage on them. Most importantly, learn from them.

Build Sites for Social Media – For some, this will be the scariest piece of advice, but it’s also arguably the most important. Luckily, using the right tools, it can be done in minutes a day.

Learn from Your “Friends” (In other words, you competitors) – The easiest way to beat competitors in the social media marketing game is to know what your competitors are doing. Social media is so public by nature that thankfully it really doesn’t take a whole lot of skill to “spy” on them. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of visiting their pages every day.

Every day we will expand on one of the ten points listed above. The expansion will include an article which will appear on the homepage on top of receiving a link from this article. We hope you find it all useful. Social media is too important going forward to not have an upper hand on the competition.

Here is a webinar that we recorded for our TK Carsites automotive clients this morning that applies these principals:

2 Comments

Social media marketing is todays leading marketing strategy for most businesses. These businesses used this tool for them to gain good market and sales. And for the tips you shared here will really help them to become productive in their social business. Thanks for sharing.